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General chat thread

I just discovered the "inspect element" function in web browsers. You can find it by right-clicking anywhere on a web page. It has been there for literally years, and I just now took notice of it. And I like to consider myself a tech-literate individual. From what I can gather, it is mainly used by developers and programmers who troubleshoot website issues. How many other things am I missing simply because I didn't look? It is rather humbling tbh.
 
I just discovered the "inspect element" function in web browsers. You can find it by right-clicking anywhere on a web page. It has been there for literally years, and I just now took notice of it. And I like to consider myself a tech-literate individual. From what I can gather, it is mainly used by developers and programmers who troubleshoot website issues. How many other things am I missing simply because I didn't look? It is rather humbling tbh.

it's also used for faking screenshots.
 
it's also used for faking screenshots.

HBciE2l.jpg
 
My job is in banking, specifically I work phones for a credit union. It's a good paying job with great benefits. I am happy to have the job, I'm reasonably good at it and it supports my lifestyle.

I also get to talk to some real characters. Like the sovereign citizen guy on Friday. His accounts were overdrawn due to various things, he had stopped paying his credit card and loan payments, and spent a lot of time asking (with plenty of pseudo legal phrasing) about depositing money orders that he had made himself.

Y'know, fake money.

The sheer chutzpa of these guys never ceases to amaze and disappoint me. They seem to think "lawyer words" are some kind of magic spell that will let them do whatever they want.
 
I also get to talk to some real characters. Like the sovereign citizen guy on Friday. His accounts were overdrawn due to various things, he had stopped paying his credit card and loan payments, and spent a lot of time asking (with plenty of pseudo legal phrasing) about depositing money orders that he had made himself.

Y'know, fake money.

The sheer chutzpa of these guys never ceases to amaze and disappoint me. They seem to think "lawyer words" are some kind of magic spell that will let them do whatever they want.
The correct answer to this is, of course, "I will deposit the exact value of the precious metals used in its production."

Watch their brains try to figure that one out for about fifteen minutes.

And, hey, maybe it'll work? I don't know if most banks are equipped to test for it, anymore, but if you can get someone to sell you a block of gold at market value, go for it.

Aside the part where you'd probably have to go to the manager since they're worth about a million dollars right now and most tellers aren't authorized to handle that sort of sum.
 
The correct answer to this is, of course, "I will deposit the exact value of the precious metals used in its production."

Watch their brains try to figure that one out for about fifteen minutes.

And, hey, maybe it'll work? I don't know if most banks are equipped to test for it, anymore, but if you can get someone to sell you a block of gold at market value, go for it.

Aside the part where you'd probably have to go to the manager since they're worth about a million dollars right now and most tellers aren't authorized to handle that sort of sum.
Most branches of banks and credit unions don't have nearly that amount of cash on hand. Usually if someone needs a truly large amount of cash they have to order it in advance and get called when it's available for pickup.
 
Most branches of banks and credit unions don't have nearly that amount of cash on hand.
Oh, I'm aware. Currency is mostly digital these days, anyway. To the point where 90% or so of all the 'money' on the market? Has no physical analogue. Never printed by any government, existing only in cyberspace. And, no, this doesn't include cryptocurrencies.

Usually if someone needs a truly large amount of cash they have to order it in advance and get called when it's available for pickup.
Which, fun fact, will get you on a government watch list, since it probably means you're doing something illegal.

And to be fair... I'm struggling to imagine any legal reason to need a million dollars in paper money. Unless it's, like, Zimbabwe money or something.

Anyone peddling legal goods and services of that value accepts checks. And probably installment plans.
 
Which, fun fact, will get you on a government watch list, since it probably means you're doing something illegal.

And to be fair... I'm struggling to imagine any legal reason to need a million dollars in paper money. Unless it's, like, Zimbabwe money or something.

Anyone peddling legal goods and services of that value accepts checks. And probably installment plans.
True enough. Usually we only get people wanting 10-20k at a time, usually for buying a car from an individual. Some branches can get that much scratch together if you get them at the right time of the week, otherwise, it needs to be ordered because we can't run out of cash for other people.
 
A while back I installed an adblocker on my computer web browsers, and it was fucking awesome. Unfortunately, my smartphone is an iphone, and it is incompatible with ublock, rhe adblocker I used on my laptop. So from my phone, I had to deal with ads when browsing the internet. If ads were annoying before, they were doubly annoying since I discovered adfree browsing. Then I discovered the brave browser, which automatically comes with an adblocking function. I downloaded it and tested it out, and it works well enough. I think it my replace safari as ny default browser on my phone. It will take time to import passwords/bookmarks, and of course I will need to learn the idiosyncrasies of the browser, but that will happen in due time.

For now, I am just happy to be rid of the wretched popup ads entirely.
 
A while back I installed an adblocker on my computer web browsers, and it was fucking awesome. Unfortunately, my smartphone is an iphone, and it is incompatible with ublock, rhe adblocker I used on my laptop. So from my phone, I had to deal with ads when browsing the internet. If ads were annoying before, they were doubly annoying since I discovered adfree browsing. Then I discovered the brave browser, which automatically comes with an adblocking function. I downloaded it and tested it out, and it works well enough. I think it my replace safari as ny default browser on my phone. It will take time to import passwords/bookmarks, and of course I will need to learn the idiosyncrasies of the browser, but that will happen in due time.

For now, I am just happy to be rid of the wretched popup ads entirely.
At least Android Firefox can also install uBlock Origin as an add-on.

Edit: As for uBlock vs uBlock Origin, last I paid attention uBlock was sold to a mystery owner while Origin is maintained by the original dev, though things might've changed since then.
 
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Let me guess the preceding incident: astonishingly poor cyber security on par with Linus Tech Tips.

I was wrong, it is in fact much more stupid.

Why the actual fuck would someone willing to upload a brain scan with the explicit purpose of creating an AI become... distressed on learning his biological body died? Like, for most people I'm pretty sure that would get an "oh, unfortunate" at most.

Furthermore, why the balls would you use a full brain upload to do tasks like... correcting grammar and accounting work? Just fucking build an AI specifically for those tasks, it isn't hard! We're doing it and we can't even simulate human minds!
 
I was wrong, it is in fact much more stupid.

Why the actual fuck would someone willing to upload a brain scan with the explicit purpose of creating an AI become... distressed on learning his biological body died? Like, for most people I'm pretty sure that would get an "oh, unfortunate" at most.

Furthermore, why the balls would you use a full brain upload to do tasks like... correcting grammar and accounting work? Just fucking build an AI specifically for those tasks, it isn't hard! We're doing it and we can't even simulate human minds!
So it's the idiocy of Aperture Science from the Portal games all over again.
 
So it's the idiocy of Aperture Science from the Portal games all over again.
I'm pretty sure Portal's entire story was meant to be a joke. Like, nothing about it takes itself seriously.

The game was originally just an Engine Test, to see if they even could program portals, that took off into a demo because the makers were having too much fun to stop.

TL;DR- it's The Three Stooges, not Citizen Kane.


Meanwhile, that story... is just dumb...
 
I'm pretty sure Portal's entire story was meant to be a joke. Like, nothing about it takes itself seriously.

The game was originally just an Engine Test, to see if they even could program portals, that took off into a demo because the makers were having too much fun to stop.

TL;DR- it's The Three Stooges, not Citizen Kane.


Meanwhile, that story... is just dumb...
So it's still the same idiocy, just attempting to be serious about itself, and only coming off as more ridiculous and/or frustrating for it.
https://qntm.org/lena

I found a neat sci fi story about the consequences of mind uploading.
Asshole software editors in realspace/meatspace/non-digital reality that can undermine your entire concept of self and existence?
Let me guess the preceding incident: astonishingly poor cyber security on par with Linus Tech Tips.
Or they lose power with no backup generators after thinking it was smart to store the whole mind on flash memory.
 
Or they lose power with no backup generators after thinking it was smart to store the whole mind on flash memory.

No, no, NAND flash is stable without power. Mostly. It doesn't last forever though.

Asshole software editors in realspace/meatspace/non-digital reality that can undermine your entire concept of self and existence?

And yet still somehow can't create specialized programs to mimic it, no, they need to alter existing mind uploads. For reasons.

That story deserves to get Skynet on their asses. And the Necrons.

And the Dark Eldar.
 
I was wrong, it is in fact much more stupid.

Why the actual fuck would someone willing to upload a brain scan with the explicit purpose of creating an AI become... distressed on learning his biological body died? Like, for most people I'm pretty sure that would get an "oh, unfortunate" at most.

Furthermore, why the balls would you use a full brain upload to do tasks like... correcting grammar and accounting work? Just fucking build an AI specifically for those tasks, it isn't hard! We're doing it and we can't even simulate human minds!
That sounds like some of the needlessly sadistic bullshit in Black Mirror.

Like making a mind state copy of someone, torturing that copy until it's mind is broken, then using it as a day planner AI.
 
Come to think of it, I really don't understand. Why exactly do I like such messed up stuff? I genuinely can't seem to enjoy myself if it doesn't depict suffering of good or at least sympathetic characters. Or at least heroic ones.
 
It was my least favorite episode of Black Mirror. Like, if you have the tech to create that, why can't you just make a fucking day planner? It's gotta be less complicated.

Precisely. It's because the authors have no creativity beyond "what would make this dark and gritty?" and are thus shit.

Come to think of it, I really don't understand. Why exactly do I like such messed up stuff? I genuinely can't seem to enjoy myself if it doesn't depict suffering of good or at least sympathetic characters. Or at least heroic ones.

That... sounds like a serious mental health issue.
 
It doesn't exactly cause me problems in my daily life. I'm just curious.
Depends...

Does it get you involved because it makes you care for the stakes of the story?

Or does it get you involved because you like watching suffering?


Because the former's... pretty normal, actually. The most engaging stories are the ones where the heroes have challenges to face. This is a thoroughly observed phenomena of human behavior that remains true no matter where you look in in world history.

Cakewalk power fantasies really only appeal to the emotionally stunted who can't handle stress, even fictitious stress.
 
So... I just realized that I have a weird vice; acting on a story about Errol Flynn, I created a nose spray that's half vodka and half purified water. Having a few snorts of that with a beer hits the brain like a brick.

Also, apparently blowing vodka up my nose doesn't bother me much.

Unlike Errol Flynn, I didn't add cocaine to my nose spray, so at least there's that.
 
I'm pretty sure there's gotta be health reasons not to do that beyond the basic 'alcohol is bad for you', but I'm struggling to think of any.

Aside if it gets into your lungs. You don't want anything other than air in your lungs.
 
I'm pretty sure there's gotta be health reasons not to do that beyond the basic 'alcohol is bad for you', but I'm struggling to think of any.

Aside if it gets into your lungs. You don't want anything other than air in your lungs.
Well, the spray isn't that strong.

Also, considering how many times I've inhaled soda or beer by drinking while watching comedians or funny movies, I'm pretty sure I'm well screwed on that front anyway, so...
 
Also, considering how many times I've inhaled soda or beer by drinking while watching comedians or funny movies, I'm pretty sure I'm well screwed on that front anyway, so.
No, that doesn't generally get to the lungs. Not deep, anyhow. There's a system in place that (partially) blocks and causes you to start coughing before it gets deep.

You have to actively, consciously, inhale. Not unlike smoking or using an inhaler, to force heavier materials deeper into the lungs.

Or, y'know, be in such a dense pocket of material that it's impossible to do anything but.
 
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